Grieving South Koreans Seek Comfort in AI Videos of Deceased Loved Ones
South Korean startups are serving about 300 customers a month as families use AI likenesses of the dead for memorial rituals and gifts.
- South Koreans are increasingly using AI-generated videos to recreate deceased relatives, with Seoul-based startup Vaice serving about 300 customers monthly, mainly people in their 40s or 50s seeking digital likenesses of late parents.
- Families use these AI videos during memorial rituals and major Korean holidays to honor loved ones, and while acceptance is spreading with celebrity appearances on TV, the technology initially faced suspicion from those fearing intensified grief.
- Office worker Lee Geon Hui hired Vaice in December to produce an AI-animated video of his late grandfather, paying 600,000 won for a basic three-to-five-minute clip with a personalized script he wrote himself.
- Families report feeling moved by digital likenesses, though many watch videos only once; Lee felt rewarded when he saw tears on his father's face, realizing his father still deeply misses his grandfather.
- Researcher Yong Man Ro of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology warns that advancing technology toward interactive "griefbots" could trap bereaved families in fantasy and undermine natural mourning processes.
29 Articles
29 Articles
Associated Press News
Bereaved South Koreans try AI-generated videos of deceased loved ones
In recent years, a growing number of bereaved people in digitally-savvy South Korea have been trying out tech startups that offer short simulated videos of dead relatives.
In South Korea, more and more people are turning to companies that use artificial intelligence to create short video clips with digital copies of dead relatives. These videos are used as gifts to close relatives or during family memorial events. ABC News reports. One of Seoul's companies, Vaice, reports that it serves about 300 clients each month. It requires several photographs and short recordings of a deceased person's voice. A basic video of…
In recent years, a growing number of grieving people in South Korea have been testing emerging technology companies that offer simulated short videos of deceased family members. These companies claim that they only need some photos, brief voice samples of the deceased and a script to animate a video with realistic appearance and sound. Some customers claim that this emerging industry offers comfort, but some experts argue that this practice rais…
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